REV. AL SHARPTON, MSNBC HOST: Tonight on politics nation, Obamacare is here to stay. A huge win for the president. A huge setback for Republicans. They are freaking out and saying some weird things about chief justice Roberts.

Also a stunning twist in the Tamir Rice case. The prosecutor`s revelation about this video on what would have been Tamir`s 13th birthday.

We begin tonight with a major victory for the American people at the Supreme Court. The court upheld a key part of the affordable care act, the subsidies to help people pay for their insurance. The justices voted 6-3 to keep the subsidies.

In his decision, chief justice John Roberts wrote Congress passed the affordable care act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them.

The decision is great news for the 6.4 million Americans who buy insurance on the federal exchange. It is also great news for President Obama.

Here you can see him celebrating the decision with his chief of staff. Moments later, he spoke to the American people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There can be no doubt that this law is working. It has changed and in some cases saved American lives. It`s set this country on a smarter, stronger course. And today after more than 50 votes in Congress to repeal or weaken this law, after a presidential election based in part on preserving our repealing that law, after multiple challenges to this law before the Supreme Court, the affordable care act is here to stay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: After years of GOP attacks, the law was upheld once again by the conservative chief justice. So how are Republicans coping?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: The problem with Obamacare is still fundamentally the same. The law is broken. We are going to continue our efforts to do everything we can to put the American people back in charge of their own healthcare or not the federal government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: They`re still in denial. They just don`t get it. And when a reporter asked if the house will hold the vote on a GOP health care plan, here`s what Speaker Boehner said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOEHNER: I`m not sure -- I`m not -- we`ll see. There has been discussion about that. But most of the discussion so far this year was if the court ruled against the administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: We`ll see? Doesn`t sound like much of a plan to me. And over in the Senate, Harry Reid had some good advice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HARRY REID (D), MINORITY LEADER: Stop banging your heads against the wall in this legislation. It passed. It`s the law of this nation. Stop it. Move on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Stop it. Move on. Get over it. Get a hobby. They can do whatever they want, just stop trying to take healthcare away from millions of people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: This is the not an abstract thing anymore. This is not a set of political talking points. This is a reality. We can see how it is working. This law is working. It is exactly as it is supposed to. In many ways, this law is working better than we expected it to. For all of misinformation campaigns, all the doomsday predictions, all the talk of death penal (ph) and job disruption, for all the repeal attempts, this law is now helping tens of millions of Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Joining me now is Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, and Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the national constitution center. Thank you both for being here.

SHARPTON: Congresswoman, today`s ruling upheld subsidies for more than 230,000 people in your home state of Illinois alone. How are you feeling about the ruling today?

SCHAKOWSKY: This was a great day today. Really for 17 million Americans. That`s how many more are insured because of the affordable care act. And in my statement alone, 19,000 people who rely on subsidies are breathing a sigh of relief. This is a really great day.

SHARPTON: You know, Jeffrey, chief justice Roberts has now twice written opinions upholding the affordable care act. What surprised you today?

ROSEN: Well, I was not surprised. I had predicted that this would be a 6-3 decision written by the chief. And I think it`s entirely in keeping with what he said when he was nominated which is that he didn`t like 5-4 decisions on partisan grounds. He thinks it`s important to put the legitimacy of the court above the ideology. And he believes in deferring to Congress and actually figuring out what it actually meant to achieve rather than playing gotcha by taking words out of context.

He is not a textious like Justice Scalia. He doesn`t believe that you should ignore what Congress is trying do and it was so striking to see him review history of the act, congress` efforts to insure millions of Americans and I think it was a really proud day for the Supreme Court.

SHARPTON: You know, congresswoman, President Obama also said today we still have work to do on health care. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We`re going to keep working to get more people covered. I`m going to work as hard as I can to convince more Governors and state legislators to take advantage of the law, put politics aside and expand Medicaid and cover their citizens. We still got states out there that for political reasons are not covering millions much people that they could be covering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Will this ruling make it harder for states for expand Medicaid?

SCHAKOWSKY: I hope that they will do that. As he said, millions of people could get health care and billions of dollars could be going into states that haven`t expanded Medicaid yet. It`s really unbelievable that governors would turn down not only insuring their open people, but all that money that would come from the federal government. This would not even require a state match to come to their states.

But I`m telling you, Reverend Al, these Republicans especially those who are running for president, are doubling down and talking about repeal and replace. And that conversation has been going on since 2010 since the law passed and we haven`t seen one iota of replace. And you saw John Boehner our speaker hemming and hawing about whether or not we were going to see any action to really replace Obamacare. 60 times the house has voted to repeal Obamacare. And as you said, it`s time for them to call it off, to get a life, to buckle down now to make this law even better.

SHARPTON: Jeffrey, Justice Scalia wrote the dissent for this case and let`s just say he was not happy. Among other things, he wrote, we should start calling this law Scotuscare or Supreme Court of the United States scare, for those that don`t know what is Scotuscare. He said the majority interpretation means words no longer have meaning. And, quote, "impossible possibility thy name is an opinion on the affordable care act." Seems pretty unusual, doesn`t it?

ROSEN: Well, he had some zingers in there. As you said he called chief justice Roberts`s interpretation absurd. And you saw sorts of other, the very colorful adjectives. This is consistent with Justice Scalia`s interpretative philosophy. I mean, his principled about it. He is what - he is called a texturalist. He believes if the words are clear, you should just look at them and not look at what Congress was trying to achieve. In his words, the words were clear. He quoted from a bunch of different sections of the act that talked about exchanges established by the state being eligible for a tax break but not those by the federal government.

So there is no doubt that he meant what he said and he accused chief justice Roberts twice not only in this case but also in the previous affordable care act case of rewriting the law in order to save Congress from its own impression.

But again, chief justice Roberts had some very powerful responses to all that saying that when you look at that language in context, it`s so obvious what Congress was trying do, it was to make the whole thing work together and it couldn`t possibly have intended chief justice Roberts said to deny millions of people health insurance.

So it was a fascinating debate about how you should interpret the laws and statutes. And I think both the majority and the dissent were making it in good faith, but chief justice Roberts made a very strong argument.

SHARPTON: Congresswoman, a lot of conservatives are pretty unhappy with Justice Roberts over the decision. Speaker Boehner wouldn`t even comment. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you expect something different when John Roberts was confirmed to the Supreme Court? Are you disappointed in how his tenure has turned out?

BOEHNER: I`ll let the legal beagles around the country debate the chief justice of the Supreme Court. I`m just a mere speaker of the house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: But on twitter, we saw conservatives tweeting things calling him Benedict Arnold, W.`s biggest mistake. One person said he was being blackmailed or intimidated by President Obama. Pretty strong reaction, isn`t it, congresswoman?

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, it`s ridiculous. I mean the truth of the matter is that had they ruled against the affordable care act, I think it would have been the most political decision since Bush v. Gore.

All of the evidence is very clear. There were four words that mentioned the states. It never had language that excluded the federal government. And all of the decisions that have been made by the congressional budget office, by the internal revenue service, by the Republicans themselves in their own budgets made the intent of the Congress very clear that we meant to cover all of the -- not just the state exchanges, but all of the states in the union. And so they`re angry because they don`t like Obamacare. But the court made the correct decision as our expert has said.

SHARPTON: Well, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and Jeffrey Rosen, thank you both for your time tonight especially on this huge day.

ROSEN: Thank you, Reverend.

SCHAKOWSKY: Thank you.

SHARPTON: Coming up, a big revelation about the video in the Tamir Rice shooting and an emotional interview with his father. Speaking out, his father is, on what would have been his son`s 13th birthday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It in my heart, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it tough feeling in there and not here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Real tough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Tamir Rice would have been 13 years old today.

Plus healing and hope and challenging in Charleston. New signs tonight that real change could happen even people far apart on most issues like myself and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley can find reason to hug.

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(VIDEO CLIP PLAYING)

SHARPTON: Lots of good cheer outside the Supreme Court today. And in the oval office, it was all hugs. A big step forward for the president and the country. But for Republicans who want his job, well, it was another story. We`ll look at that next.

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SHARPTON: The Supreme Court`s Obamacare decision is throwing 2016 Republicans into a tizzy. But Hillary Clinton is celebrating. She tweeted, yes! Supreme Court affirms what is we know is true in our hearts and under the law. Health insurance should be affordable and available to all. And posted a photograph of herself hugging President Obama.

2016 Republicans aren`t taking the news as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It`s a total disaster. It`s a big lie. He got by lying 28 defendant times. So it is the big lie.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Whoever the Republican Party may nominate, the one thing I can assure you is that they will repeal and replace Obamacare with something better.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I`m really disappointed in this. I think it`s a missed opportunity. I think it is a mistake.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I disagree with their decision. I believe Obamacare is bad for Americans, but for the country.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These rogue Houdini`s have Trans more reified (ph) a federal exchange into an exchange, quote, "established by the state." This is lawless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: I`ve seen some GOP freak outs in my time, but this is a big one.

Mike Huckabee called it an out of control act of judicial tyranny. What a mouthful. Carly Fiorina called it outrageous. And Chris Christie said the decision turns common language on his head. I guess John Roberts won`t be on their Christmas card list this year.

Other candidates just went back to the archives to dust off their old talking points. Jeb Bush called it fatally flawed. Rick Perry says it`s time we repealed Obamacare. Haven`t heard that one before. Scott Walker called it destructive and costly. And Bobby Jindal said we should repeal and replace. Is this deja vu all over again for Republicans, the 2016 election is already sounding a lot like 2012. And we all know how that turned out.

Joining me now is former Pennsylvania governor and DNC chair Ed Rendell. Thanks for being here tonight, governor.

ED RENDELL, FORMER PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR: My pleasure. It`s a great day for America.

SHARPTON: Yes, it is. We`ve seen this kind of freak out on the Republican side before, though, haven`t we?

RENDELL: Yes, we have. And what bothers me, Rev., is that they continue to lie about the affordable care act even in the face of new facts. Jeb Bush said it`s a job killing mandate. Well, has he been watching the economy ever since the affordable care act went into law, each month we`ve added private sector jobs. It`s not a job killer at all.

Secondly, they say it will cause health care costs to rise. Well, before the affordable care act, health care costs were rising 10 percent a year. Since that, the increase has been much lower. And in fact in 14 states this year, Rev., they actually reduced health care costs. No increase, a reduction in 14 states.

And thirdly, they said it will add to the federal deficit, the CBO said originally that it would cut the federal deficit by $100 billion over ten years. Now that estimate is closer to $200 billion over ten years. So they continue to sing the same song and it`s incorrect, it`s lies and they know it is.

SHARPTON: You know, Republicans have had so many chances to stop this law, governor. The 2010 Congress before the law passed, the 2012 Supreme Court case, the 2012 presidential election and the Supreme Court case today. Why can`t Republicans running for president just let it go?

RENDELL: Because I think it`s a good issue with the base in the primaries. But each time we take a poll, the affordable care act becomes much more popular. And I`m tell you, Rev., every one of these Republican candidates who have been trashing the decision down deep have to be happy about the decision. Because if they decided that the eight million people who get health care subsidies through the federal exchanges no longer could get them, they would have to come up with some concrete idea how to replace health care for those eight million. And they don`t have an idea. So they are very, very fortunate tonight that the Supreme Court decided what they did.

SHARPTON: Here`s what Karl Rove had to say today about the ruling earlier today. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARL ROVE, REPUBLICAN POLITICAL CONSULTANT: The Republicans have a plan to replace the affordable care act, I do believe this will be a big issue in the 2016 presidential Election. This is a victory for the president, but it`s not the end of the battle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Now Karl Rove is saying it`s not the end of the battle. It is not the end of the fight. But Republicans have lost every battle. I mean, what`s the strategy here, governor?

RENDELL: Well, I guess what they are talking about is let`s assume hypothetically that in 2016, we elected a Republican president, Republican senate, Republican house. Then would they be in position to repeal the affordable care act? Absolutely not. Because as you know, in the Senate, 40 senators can block anything from going into law. So as long as the Democrats had 40 senators in the Senate, and that is unlikely to ever change, they can never get the repeal through. So really again they`re misleading the American public and they know they`re misleading the American public.

SHARPTON: Governor Ed Rendell, thank you for your time tonight.

RENDELL: My pleasure. Good day.

SHARPTON: Ahead, Charleston starts laying the rest of the beautiful nine and the country starts to open a new conversation about progress.

Plus big news in the Tamir Rice case. The prosecution says there is higher quality video of the shooting that we didn`t though about before.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: These are live pictures from mother Emanuel in Charleston at the wake of Clementa Pinckney. He`ll be laid to rest tomorrow. The first funerals were held today. I was there as we remembered Ethel Lance, a 75-year-old mother of five. We heard from his grandson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANDON RICHER, ETHEL LANCE`S GRANDSON: She was a victim of hate and she can be a symbol for love. That`s what she was in life. Hate is powerful, but love is more powerful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: We also bid farewell to Sharonda Singleton, a mother of three who coached track and field.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JOSEPH RILEY, CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: (INAUDIBLE), so positive personality and character to their community.

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SHARPTON: As the nation embraces nine grieving families, we face some tough questions. Just yesterday, Alabama removed the confederate flag from its statehouse grounds. But as the "New York Times" column suggests, tearing down the confederate flag is just a start. It`s hard to focus on the flag when, quote, "almost two-thirds of black children grow up in low income families and when black men in their 20s without a diploma are more likely to be incarcerated than employed."

There are bigger questions to confront and we`re starting to see it. Protesters rallied in the home district of a GOP congressman blocking a fix to the voting rights act and a bipartisan group of law makers just introduced an ambitious new bill aimed at criminal justice reform. The tough conversation is starting to happen. But it`s just a start.

Joining me now is the author of that "New York Times" piece, Nicholas Kristof. Thank you for being here tonight.

NICHOLAS KRISTOF, NEW YORK TIMES: My pleasure.

SHARPTON: You know, Nicholas, I read your piece on the plane flying down this morning. It inspired the speech I gave today. Because you talk about taking down the flag is important, but there are deeper problems we cannot gloss over, aren`t they?

KRISTOF: Absolutely. And you know, we in the news media, we tend to focus on the drama, on the symbols, ad those symbols are real. I mean, that flag was used as the banner by which people, you now, fought to extend slavery, to fight civil rights, to led civil rights protesters. But at the end of the day, it is a symbol. And if you - and I think it is now time both to celebrate that triumph over that symbol, but also to pivot to matter in real stuff sense. And if you think about the inequities in America today there, they don`t involve as much the flag. They involve the fact that a black boy is at birth is projected to live five years less than a white boy. They involve profound inequities in education, in incarceration, in criminal justice. And I think that is the agenda we now have to swivel over to.

SHARPTON: You write, "So sure good riddance to confederate flags across the country. And then let`s swivel to address the larger national disgrace in 2015, so many children still don`t have an equal shot at life because of the color of their skin." How big a role does economic fairness play into the equal shot that you mentioned, Nicholas?

KRISTOF: You know, absolutely. But it`s complicated. And if you look at the progress since the 1960s, then in some ways there really has been tremendous progress. And there is a much bigger black middle class than there ever was before. But there are an awful lot of people who are stuck and are not getting traction. And the working class in general has suffered. Those people who were educationally left behind, who are high school dropouts or only high school graduates, whether they`re white or black, face a huge obstacle and those who were African-American in particular.

And so if we try to figure out, you know, where we go from here, then I think we have to focus on some of these educational issues and then providing better jobs, more economic opportunity, and there are no silver bullets here. But in a sense there is silver buckshot. There are a lot of things that individually will help to create more opportunity and less inequity.

SHARPTON: There was even a report today where black middle class don`t get into the same neighborhoods as white middle class and it affects the environment and the education and all. And today I mentioned a bipartisan group of Congress that just introduced a criminal justice overhaul. And earlier this week, I had a conservative named Grover Norquist here on my show to talk about similar reforms. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GROVER NORQUIST, AMERICANS FOR TAX REFORM: Locking people up and throwing away the key does not necessarily get you less crime and safer communities. You can keep safety, you can punish crime without some of these mandatory minimums, very long sentences that a number of laws have mandated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTOF: Yes, I mean, mass in-incarceration is actually one issue --

SHARPTON: So, this is gaining momentum, this criminal justice issue even across party lines. How could major changes to our criminal justice system improve the bigger problem that you wrote about today?

KRISTOF: Well, you know, I think indeed we will going to see progress on criminal justice reform for a simple reason that mass incarceration is expensive. And the argument that has resonated, I mean, for example one of the leaders in moving away from mass incarceration is Texas. And that`s not because of a social justice argument or because of an equity argument, it`s because mass incarceration is expensive and Texas has been spending a lot of people of money, locking up a lot of people and they can let some out of prison and crime rates won`t go you. So, I think that we`re going to see some progress on criminal justice reform as it relates to mass incarceration.

I think the heavier lifting is going to be issues of educational equity, job equity. And I think more broadly, you know, we`re certainly seeing less of the hard, you know, flat out old fashioned KKK racists. And everybody recognizes that. But I think it`s much harder conversation to talk about unconscious racism. You know, not the principal who doesn`t want any black kids in his school, but rather the principal who believes in equal rights and yet unconsciously when he sees as black boy misbehaving, he`s more likely to expel that kid than a similar white kid. And these are much harder issues to address together, heads around. I would love to see some kind of a truth and reconciliation commission in this country partly to raise these issues to help put them on the agenda to start some of these really difficult conversations in white America.

SHARPTON: Nicholas Kristof, thank you so much for your time tonight.

KRISTOF: My pleasure.

SHARPTON: Coming up, new higher quality video of the Tamir Rice shooting. But will it speed up the investigation?

Plus, lots of people were surprised when Governor Haley and I shared a hug today in Charleston. But they shouldn`t be. I`ll tell you why, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: Big news in the Tamir Rice investigation on a day with special significance. Today would have been his 13th birthday. The prosecutor now saying the investigation will be done, quote, "in a matter of months." The family has criticized the pace of the investigation, the prosecutor also revealing a video of the shooting captured by a security camera is of much higher quality than previously thought. Those images showed Tamir Rice playing with the pellet gun last November before officers shot him less than two seconds after arriving on the scene. Police say officers didn`t know the weapon was a pellet gun and that they warned him before shooting. A sheriff`s investigation found no evidence of a warning.

And Tamir Rice`s father is speaking out with MSNBC`s Trymaine Lee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRYMAINE LEE, MSNBC CORRESPONDENT: What kind of memories do you hold on to about Tamir?

SHARPTON: Joining me now is veteran prosecutor Paul Henderson. Thank you for being here.

PAUL HENDERSON, VETERAN PROSECUTOR: Pleasure to be here, Reverend.

SHARPTON: Paul, prosecutor says the investigation could be finished in a matter of months. What is your take on that?

HENDERSON: Well, obviously what he`s talking about is his decision to use the grand jury. And we`ve talked about this before, the prosecutor at any time can charge on his own initiative and proceed by way of preliminary hearing for charges like this. And so saying that it`s going to will be extended by a matter of months means that he`s going to present the evidence to a grand jury to seek an indictment and to seek criminal charges rather than just filing the charges himself and presenting them in front of a judge.

And we`ve heard commentary from side judges talking about what they think might could happen or could happen on the evidence. But I think it`s going to be evidence watching how this evidence unfolds specifically with potential charges against the driver, the field training officer in this case. Because it`s not just the shooter that we`re examining. There could be negligence homicide charges against with field investigating officer coming to that location. And coming up so close in an isolated part for someone that they`ve fought was a suspect with a gun. So, that`s going to be part of the analysis and part of what the grand jury is going to be evaluating as they determined charges in this case from a criminal perspective.

SHARPTON: But this seems to be taking so long. In fact, you had one judge that the family`s attorney went to to get an advisory and in a week he came back and made some very clear remarks here. Tamir Rice`s mother, she spoke about the pace of the investigation six months after the shooting. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMARIA RICE, MOTHER OF TAMIR RICE: Less than a second, my son is gone and I want to know how long I got to wait for justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: It`s now been seven months since Tamir Rice was shot. Is there pressure within the community to get this done sooner?

HENDERSON: There is absolutely that pressure from the community. And again, this is a terrible tragedy and we see again another African-American that has been killed after an encounter with law enforcement. And so, the analysis now has shifted on to the prosecution yet again to make a decision as to how they are going to proceed and that`s with the criminal analysis. Because they always have the option of charging independently aside from the grand jury, but we still have the civil charges to contemplate, as well, and that`s a whole separate analysis and separate track.

SHARPTON: Well, what is your take on this new so-called enhanced video?

HENDERSON: Well, the enhanced video is going to be used when they analyze what a reasonable officer would have done under those facts and circumstances. And so what is going to come into play is the information about whether or not they had the information from the caller themselves that made the call initially that said there was a suspect that could have been a kid with a fake gun. Did they know that? Did they analyze that? How and when did he make the decision to shoot in under two seconds? Was that reasonable. Was there a zone of danger?

These are the questions that are going to be asked. And now as the prosecutor has indicated are going to be presented to a grand jury for them to determine whether or not a reasonable officer, not just this officer, a reasonable officer under those facts and under those circumstances would have acted the same way and would have truly believed that he was either in danger, the officer, or that Tamir was a danger to others. And that`s going to be a tough question I think from a defense perspective to try and defend because we`ve all seen the video. If the video is even clearer than the video that we`ve already seen, that doesn`t help us answer those questions any easier.

SHARPTON: Paul Henderson, thank you for your time tonight.

HENDERSON: Thanks for having me, Reverend.

SHARPTON: Coming up, millions of people have something to celebrate after today`s ObamaCare decision. Here is just one of them at the court. I`ll talk to her, next.

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SHARPTON: The Supreme Court`s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act is a huge relief to the 6.4 million Americans who were at risk losing their subsidies to pay for the insurance. Today jubilation outside the Supreme Court as people celebrated the ruling. Including Gwen Jackson from Sugarland, Texas, whose husband was able to have lifesaving surgery for a pre-existing condition. Thanks to the ACA, without the subsidies, the family would not be able to afford insurance or the surgeries her husband has needed.

Joining me now is Gwen Jackson and Keith Mowens (ph) whose family went without health care for two years before the got subsidies to enroll in a plan. Thanks for being here tonight.

SHARPTON: Gwen, let me go to you first. You were at the court when the ruling came down. It sure looks like you were pretty excited.

JACKSON: I was so excited. I couldn`t believe it. I stood in line with a lot of law students and they all said that it wouldn`t be, it was going to be a negative decision. And I sat in the Supreme Court and heard it, and it was so positive. So, yes, I was very excited.

SHARPTON: Now, tell us, Gwen, what would have happened to your family if the court struck down the subsidies.

JACKSON: So right now we`re being subsidized with our insurance because we were out of the network and my husband had a pre-existing condition. So what subsequently would happen is we would have to come up with that additional amount per month for that subsidy.

SHARPTON: Keith, how important would ObamaCare subsidies be to your family?

MOWENS: Well, it`s the difference between having insurance and not having insurance.

SHARPTON: Well, what would have happened if the court`s decision went the other way, what would have happened in your situation, Keith?

MOWENS: In our situation in our house, we do have four of us that are under the ObamaCare now. And what we would do if it was an adverse decision is that we -- three of us who are relatively healthy would have dropped our insurance and we`d have retained my wife who could not get insurance before because of a pre-existing condition. And we would have kept her on the plan. So what would have happened in any way we would have covered her premiums. So what would have happened is the healthy people in our house would have dropped our insurance and the one that needed it would have kept it.

SHARPTON: Now, Gwen -- let me ask you something though before I got back to Gwen Keith. What was life before you got the subsidy? What was that like before you got these subsidies?

MOWENS: Well, we didn`t have insurance. We could not get insurance because of pre-existing conditions. And it was an incredible mental strain, very hard thing to take day to day on whether or not you were going to be able to cover medical costs should they occur.

SHARPTON: Wow!

MOWENS: And my wife needed simple thyroid medicine. She was a West Nile patient. And she needed the medication for that that we were very hard to purchase. Just for one blood test was about $700 and it was prohibitive. And so you`re just living under this strain of whether or not you`ll ever meet your medical costs if they should come up.

SHARPTON: Gwen, what do you say to people who continue to call for the repeal of this law?

JACKSON: Until they`re directly impacted by this decision, they can`t understand the importance of such a ruling. So, it`s sad to me that people still feel that even after the decision came down, that potentially they could go back in and appeal it. It`s just sad that they don`t understand the 6.4 million people that it was impacting. It`s just not me and my husband. It`s 6.4 million people. There had to be a reason for this insurance. There had to be a reason for the lawsuit. There had to be a reason for the policy. So, I don`t know what to say but it`s sad that they don`t understand how important it is to more than a small group of people. It`s the masses.

SHARPTON: Gwen Jackson and Keith Mowens, we thank you both for your time tonight and good luck to both of you and your families.

JACKSON: Thank you, Reverend Sharpton.

MOWENS: Thank you, Reverend Sharpton. The best to you.

SHARPTON: Coming up, my hug today with Governor Nikki Haley. Why the tragedy in Charleston is sparking some important conversation and at least bringing us in the same room to talk about serious things.

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SHARPTON: It was a tough day for everyone here in Charleston as we laid two of the beautiful nine to rest. But I also had a surprising moment with the republican Governor Nikki Haley at one of the funerals. Why that has me cautiously hopeful, next.

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SHARPTON: There are moments (INAUDIBLE) is when we find out who we are. We`re not just about what`s easy. We`re tested about what brings out all this in us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Earlier today, I had the privilege of speaking at the funeral for one of the beautiful nine, Sharonda Coleman Singleton. This terrible event is testing us, but it`s also bringing us together in the same room. And today I talked about the words I shared with two South Carolina Republicans, Governor Nikki Haley and State Senator Paul Thurman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: This morning at another service, I walked over and spoke to Governor Haley. (INAUDIBLE) She usually sees me out the window watching.

(LAUGHTER)

And I spoke on the phone with Mr. Thurman whose great grandfather owned my family, the Thurmans, my great grandfather owned by Anna Thurman. And Alexander Sharpton. We will going to keep disagreeing, but a conversation has started.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: When it was Governor Haley`s turn to speak, she responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. NIKKI HALEY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I do want to respond respectfully and with great humility respond to the Reverend Sharpton.

(APPLAUSE)

And to Reverend Sharpton I would like to say that if you were protesting outside my window, if you would have come inside and head out your hand, I would have hugged you.

(APPLAUSE)

SHARPTON: I`ll hug you back.

HALEY: And I will hug you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: And then we did hug. It`s a step in the right direction, but only a step. We need to build on it and we need to learn from the victims` families. One victim`s granddaughter started a social media campaign around the #HateWon`tWin. My challenge is, as people now start taking down the confederate flag or calling on it, as Mr. Kristof said in his column in "The Times," don`t just take it down, change the policies, let`s have real conversations about the criminal justice system, about voting. Let`s take this moment and make real change happen.

Thanks for watching. I`m Al Sharpton. "HARDBALL" starts right now.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. END

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